One with Christ E-Book

Marcus Peter Johnson

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Regeneration, justification, sanctification. These are the primary words that come to mind when talking about the theology of salvation. However, the Bible teaches that each of these concepts is firmly rooted in something more foundational: our union with Christ. In this accessible book, Johnson introduces us to this neglected doctrine, arguing that it is the dominant organizing concept for salvation in the New Testament. In eight thought-provoking chapters, Johnson shows how a believer's position "in Christ" is the lens through which other all other facets of salvation should be understood. Interacting extensively with the biblical text and drawing on lessons from church history, Johnson presents a compelling case for the unique importance of this beautiful, biblical doctrine.

Leseprobe

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign-up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

FacebookTwitterGoogle +

“Theologian Johnson is a Reformed thinker who restates for us Luther’s and Calvin’s Bible-based insistence that union with Christ is the framing fact within which, and whereby, all the specifics of salvation reach us. His book merits careful study, for he does his job outstandingly well.”

J. I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College

“Johnson has produced an excellent discussion of union with Christ. I am sure it will be consulted widely and contribute effectively to the church’s understanding of salvation.”

Robert Letham, Director of Research and Senior Lecturer in Systematic and Historical Theology, Wales Evangelical School of Theology

“Evangelicals certainly love Jesus, but for too long they have loved him from a distance. He is the beloved man of the Gospels who did great deeds ‘back then,’ or the glorious Christ who reigns on his throne ‘up there.’ Marcus Johnson puts the Savior back where he belongs: in our midst as the one to whom we are truly united. This book is a timely reminder that our union with Christ is actual, mystical, and sacramental. Are we ready for that?”

Bryan Litfin, Professor of Theology, Moody Bible Institute; author of Getting to Know the Church Fathers and The Chiveis Trilogy

“Inspired by the theology of John Calvin, Marcus Johnson offers up a timely and articulate manifesto on that most central of soteriological mysteries: union with Christ. Christ is beautiful, the gospel is beautiful, and at the heart of that beauty is the reality of our union with Christ by the Spirit. Johnson weaves together biblical, theological, and pastoral theology into a rich tapestry, which deserves a wide reading.”

Myk Habets, Head of Carey Graduate School, Carey Baptist College, Auckland, New Zealand

“This fine book rightly expounds union with Christ as the heart of Scripture’s approach to the Christian life. Every aspect of Christian understanding is formed and informed by it; every aspect of faith, discipleship, and service radiates from it. Johnson reminds us that our proper preoccupation ought always to be the fostering of intimacy with Jesus Christ, who has been given to needy sinners for the sake of including them in his mercy and mission. This book will convince readers that all that the church believes, does, and aspires to coheres in our union with the One who remains the blessing, and whose including us in his life is the definitive truth of our lives.”

Victor A. Shepherd, Professor of Theology, Tyndale University College and Seminary; author, Interpreting Martin Luther and The Nature and Function of Faith in the Theology of John Calvin

“Thoroughly biblical, historically informed, and practically challenging, this book confronts the misconception that Christians receive the benefits of the work of Christ without taking into account that we receive the person of Christ in faith. Most helpful are Johnson’s sections on how the mystery of the believer’s union with Christ more fully explains our justification and sanctification. This is a compelling work for those in the church and the academy, and, if you are not careful, it might just change the way you think and talk about salvation.”

Nicholas Gatzke, Senior Pastor, Osterville Baptist Church, Osterville, Massachusetts

“In this historically well-informed, theologically careful, and pastorally sensitive volume, Dr. Marcus Johnson seeks to remedy what he rightly calls ‘the glaring omission of the theme of union with Christ in the soteriological understanding of the contemporary evangelical church.’ He convincingly demonstrates that the recovery of this central biblical theme helps us as Christians to understand better and more deeply the relation of Christ’s person and work, the church as the body of Christ, and the glorious unity of our salvation in Christ. I am happy to recommend this book as an important addition to the growing body of literature on this significant topic.”

William B. Evans, Eunice Witherspoon Bell Younts and Willie Camp Younts Professor of Bible, Erskine College

“Johnson is a master mystery writer. Chapter by chapter, he unfolds the mystery of our new life in Christ. He does not solve the mystery, but rather draws us into its wonders.”

Bruce K. Modahl, Senior Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, Illinois

“Seeking the core of biblical Christianity, Marcus Johnson probes the understanding of salvation, focusing on restoring to keen awareness the reality of believers’ union in Christ as ‘the essence and foundation of salvation.’ Among the factors he points to as contributing to the sad neglect of this essential doctrine is a too-timid fear of mystery and a too-bold confidence in reason. And, in describing his own pilgrimage, Johnson considers persuasively that our union with Christ suffers from overemphasis on the work of Christ to the detriment of his person. Likewise, strong emphasis on the legal and forensic dimensions of justification has led to weak recognition of personal and participatory categories. He pays special care to the salutary nature of the church. This book, written from the heart, speaks to the heart.”

Charles Partee, P. C. Rossin Professor of Church History, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

“The tendency in much contemporary evangelical thought is to view salvation as if it were the reception of an abstract and objectified commodity given on account of Christ yet apart from him, as if Christ were the agent and condition of our salvation, but not that salvation itself. Marcus Johnson demonstrates that this is neither the witness of the apostles nor the confession of the Protestant Reformers, who proclaimed salvation to be a life-giving, life-transforming participation in our incarnate substitute. Immensely important and timely, this volume provides a richly textured theology of salvation couched in the only context that allows soteriology to be truly intelligible, pastoral, and doxological—the context constituted by the church and her sacraments.”

John C. Clark, Assistant Professor of Theology, Moody Bible Institute

One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation

Copyright © 2013 by Marcus Peter Johnson

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

Cover image: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Crucifixion, 1538, oil on panel

First printing 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV1984 are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3149-1

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3151-4

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3150-7

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3152-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Marcus Peter, 1971–

    One with Christ : an evangelical theology of salvation / Marcus Peter Johnson.

        1 online resource

     Includes bibliographical references and index.

     Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

     ISBN 978-1-4335-3150-7 (pdf); ISBN 978-1-4335-3151-4 (mobi); ISBN 978-1-4335-3152-1 (epub); ISBN 978-1-4335-3149-1 (tp)

     1. Salvation—Christianity. 2. Evangelicalism. 3. Reformed Chuch—Doctrines. I. Title.

BT751.3.J64     2013

2013011769

234—dc23

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To my son, Peter.

You are a joy to me, a living image of the gospel. May you come to share in the endless joy of the heavenly Father, in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction: Union with Christ and Salvation

1 The Nature of Union with Christ2 Sin and the Incarnation3 Justification in Christ4 Sanctification in Christ5 Adoption and Sonship in Christ6 Preservation and Glorification in Christ7 The Mystery of the Church in Christ8 The Word and Sacraments of Christ

Bibliography

PREFACE

This book is the result of a shocking encounter I had, and continue to have, with John Calvin.

When I decided during my graduate studies to pursue the thought of the great pastor-theologian of sixteenth-century Geneva, I expected a number of things. I expected that I would find in Calvin an enormously helpful resource for understanding the depth and significance of evangelical Protestant theology. I expected that I would find in his theological understanding an important historical grounding for the Protestant and evangelical faith that I confess. I expected that I would find rich accounts of doctrines that were central to my understanding of the gospel: for instance, the doctrines of the atonement, of justification, and of salvation by faith alone. And Calvin did not disappoint. My expectations were met and exceeded, not only because his theology is rich and profound, but also because it is consistently pastoral and emotionally penetrating (the caricature that Calvin was an arid intellectual who wrote theology for its own sake is just that, as anyone who actually reads Calvin’s works knows).

The fact that Calvin’s theology exceeded my expectations was delightful and enriching, but that was not what was shocking. What was shocking to me was the way in which Calvin spoke of salvation. His manner was both familiar and foreign to me at the same time. I expected and found familiar concepts, terms, and phrases given sublime expression—faith, grace, atonement, justification, sanctification, election, and others. However, I was constantly disrupted by Calvin’s consistent and ubiquitous refrain about being joined to Jesus Christ. At first, I simply absorbed this element of his theology into my pre-existent understandings, assuming that Calvin’s language about union with Christ was simply another, perhaps sentimental, method of expressing that believers are saved by the work of Christ on the cross. But then I realized, in a way that was initially disconcerting, that when Calvin wrote of being united to Christ, he meant that believers are personally joined to the living, incarnate, crucified, resurrected Jesus. Moreover, I realized that this union with Christ, which Calvin described in strikingly graphic and intimate terms, constituted for him the very essence of salvation. To be saved by Christ, Calvin kept insisting, means to be included in the person of Christ. That is what salvation is.

Due either to my theological naïveté or to my theological upbringing (or both), I did not have the categories to grasp what Calvin was saying. It was only when I began to realize that what he was saying was not only thoroughly biblical, but also in concert with many of the theological luminaries of the Christian tradition, that I began to be amazed rather than disconcerted. What at first had seemed foreign to me was nothing other than Calvin’s articulation of something basic to the Christian confession, a gospel truth that is fundamental to the biblical Author (and authors) and a living reality that was assumed by Calvin’s predecessors and contemporaries in the faith. As it turned out, I was the theological foreigner.

Once I began to see that Calvin’s language was in line with the language and thought forms embedded in the Bible and in the historic stream of Christian orthodoxy, new vistas of biblical, theological, and historical understanding began to open up to me. Salvation, in particular, took on a meaning that I had never imagined. Calvin had not contradicted anything I had believed, but his understanding of being united to Christ enriched my understanding in ways from which I have yet to recover (and hope I never do). My shocking encounter with Calvin revealed to me the beauty, wonder, and mystery of salvation in Christ, and along with it, the beauty, wonder, and mystery of the church. This surprising encounter is the impetus for this book.